Alexander Luthor (Earth-77)
Lex Luthor was a powerful businessman and criminal mastermind. He was widely considered to be one of Earth's most brilliant minds and one of Superman's greatest enemies. Personality Lex Luthor is intelligent, successful, and likes nothing better than for "lesser beings" to recognize and admire him as a leader of men. Lex's enormous legitimate accomplishments are dwarfed by his own egotistical view of himself. Lex sees himself as a modern renaissance man and the standard for human personal achievement. He has the charisma of a natural leader and the education to take advantage of this trait; however his ambitions almost always undermine the trust and faith of his allies and subordinates, and often lead to dismal failure. Luthor was already antisocial and bitter during his childhood. Having endured continuous abuse from his father, Luthor murdered him and made his death look like an accident. Since then, Luthor has become more and more ruthless, seeing people as tools to be manipulated or as enemies to be destroyed. His hatred grew even more when Superman first appeared, as Luthor believed the people of Metropolis had replaced him for Superman as the city’s savior. Swearing vengeance on Superman, Luthor has tried to destroy the Man of Steel for an eternity. Failure infuriates Luthor more than almost anything in the world; his entire existence revolves around the idea of success and superiority. His goals of being seen as the "savior" of Metropolis and his later failed bid for the power of Brainiac clearly demonstrate Lex's obsessions. Though Luthor usually demonstrates great restraint and self-control, he never forgets a slight. When angered, Luthor's rage is uncontrollable and will only subside when it is properly sated by success or revenge. Because of this super-heated temper, it is Lex's ultimate undoing that his position in life is (in Lex's mind alone) threatened by the mere existence of Superman. Luthor's true villainy was and is heavily fueled by his sheer envy of Superman; the hero was born with abilities far beyond those of mortal men like Lex and overshadowed Luthor as Metropolis's favorite son from the day of his first public appearance. Had Luthor never acted upon his jealousy of Superman, he might have been no more than an extremely high-powered (if corrupt) captain of industry. However, Luthor's reckless attempts to destroy Superman (and later, the Justice League) made him instead one of the most dangerous criminals in existence. Luthor's primary handicap in facing Superman and other heroes has always been his arrogance. As he fundamentally defines himself by his opposition to Superman, he believes that the reverse is also true, convinced that most of Superman's actions are simply to prove that he is 'better' than Luthor, incapable of recognising how Superman and other heroes would do good for the sake of it. Despite his crimes, Luthor has established an image as a wealthy philanthropist and manages to maintain a notable political popularity Powers and Abilities Abilities *'Genius Level Intellect:' Luthor's intelligence is nearly unrivaled, making one of the smartest minds on Earth. His many plans and plots to attack, maim, and generally bring ill will towards Superman were all subjects to a major plan to find a way to end the idea of Superman as well as the Kryptonian himself. Luthor has solved complicated equations in a few minutes and holds a myriad of masters and degrees. He's found cures for diseases in deep thought and found ways to better mankind while still profiting from its destruction. **'Business Management:' Lex Luthor is one of the most shrewd businessmen in the world, a trait that has earned him an immense fortune second only to entrepreneurs like Bruce Wayne and Steve Dayton. Unlike Wayne however, Luthor is not above using cutthroat tactics, unethical practices and illegal operations to maintain the success of his business empire. At the height of Lexcorp's power, Lex Luthor virtually owned every business enterprise in the city of Metropolis. **'Charisma:' Lex spent a long time developing a "silver-tongue", mostly to earn the trust and respect of those around him. The Luthor name has earned an unsavory reputation in the town of Smallville and Lex has devoted a lot of energy towards reconciling relationships thrown into disarray due to the actions of his father. In later years, Lex's demeanor darkened and he spent less time trying to earn the trust of those around him. **'Fencing:' Lex is quite proficient in the art of fencing, though he is by no means an expert. He has trained with a professional and often sparred against his own father, who has proven himself to be more skillful with a fencing blade than his son. **'Intimidation:' Lex has the ability to instill fear in others, to the extent that even the people that know him best are intimidated by him. He is able to overpower and dominate the will of others. **'Political Science:' Lex Luthor's corporate skills applied just as sharply in the political arena as they did in the boardroom. As President of the United States, he groomed the best candidates to serve as his cabinet members and knew the intricacies of bureaucratic politicking as well as any other former Chief Executive. **'Leadership:' Although Luthor's tenure as president ended in scandal, he successfully guided the nation during the massive alien invasion. He's led a large amount of supervillain teams and done so quite effectively. **'Science:' Lex has solved complicated chemical equations in seconds. He understands the variety of powers associated with the human metagene and manipulated it for his own purposes. He claims he found a cure for cancer as well as AIDS but holds them in his personal notes to better bank on it's research. **'Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic):' Lex Luthor is also trained in hand-to-hand combat, though his personal Amazon fighting instructors consider him a sub-par combatant with poor form. He has single-handedly fought with Knightwing and Batman, although he only won these fights due to such advantages as Nightwing being drugged and him still wearing parts of his old armor when he fought Batman. Weaknesses *'Human Vulnerabilities:' Lex Luthor's greatest weakness is that he is a human with no enhanced strength, speed, durability, or metahuman powers, therefore making him quite vulnerable to the physical attacks of stronger and more powerful opponents. Lex, however, usually compensates for this quite well with his tremendous supergenius intellect, since when he first directly faced Superman, while the latter was easily capable of "taking Lex in without breaking him", and of destroying Lex with his heat vision, Lex's tactical brilliance had accounted for this in advance, and rendered Superman unable to do so, since if Superman were to injure or kill Lex, Superman's mother Martha Kent would be brutally killed by Lex's loyalist Knyazev. This, in turn, empowered Lex to issue his ultimatum to the Man of Steel. When faced by Superman for the second time, Lex again avoided defeat by unleashing his monstrous creation, Doomsday, against the alien hero, just in time. *'Arrogance:' Lex Luthor's other main weakness is his overconfidence and arrogance, with him even going so far as to claim that he doesn't know how to lose. Hence, Lex was somewhat caught off-guard when Senator Finch refused to grant him an import license for the Indian Ocean Kryptonite, and when a guilt-ridden Kahina Ziri confessed her lies to Finch, as Lex had, in his arrogance, not predicted such a turn of events in either instance. However, this weakness is not very significant, as Lex's tremendous intellect allows him to very effectively compensate for this at almost all times, as he is swift to come up with an effective contingency plan after Finch's refusal, smuggling the Kryptonite in himself, and swiftly getting Finch out of his way by having her killed in the US Capitol bombing, and later having Knyazev murder Kahina Ziri. Paraphernalia Equipment *'Kryptonite' *'Sunstone' Weapons *'Lex Luthor's Warsuit' Category:Living Characters Category:Bad Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Earth-77 Characters Category:Public Identity Category:Americans Category:Married Characters Category:Height Category:Height 6' Category:Height 6' 0" Category:Weight Category:Green Eyes Category:Bald Category:Characters Category:Business Management Category:Charisma Category:Fencing Category:Genius Level Intellect Category:Intimidation Category:Political Science Category:Leadership Category:Science Category:Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic) Category:Male Villains Category:Legion of Doom Members Category:LexCorp Industries members Category:American Presidents Category:Politicians Category:Independently Wealthy Category:Atheists Category:Landlords Category:Mad Scientists